Still Plugging Away

The research and writing continues. I am in the process of putting the finishing touches on the muskie C&R manuscript. We're talking adding the literature cited section and then beginning the submission process to Fisheries Research. We're choosing this venue and not something like North American Journal of Fisheries Management because of the quick response FA is known for compared to NAJFM. In this day and age, biologists can access manuscripts from a variety of venues electronically and all it takes is one mass email and a bunch of forwarded messages to get this paper in the hands of those capable of putting it to good use.

My telemetry data set from this past summer has been a beast to deal with. I am typing from a 6-year old computer with Windows XP and the 2003 version of Excel. This old version of Excel couldn't hold more than 65,000 data points which posed a problem when I have 260,000+. I have been trying to piece-meal things together and trying other programs, but it has been a slow go. Microsoft Access was a good candidate, but I know nothing about the program. Finally, I was able to obtain a copy (free of charge!) of Microsoft Office 2007 including Excel 2007. This newer version can hold over 1,000,000 rows, thus the answer to my problems. Soon the data will be organized in such a fashion I can actually run some stats on it and start the analysis.

I will keep you all apprised on anything dramatic that happens with my thesis. The fun, however, ended last year with the last muskie for the C&R project being caught. From here on out it will be about stuffing as much information on all things muskie, fisheries biology, physiology, fish behavior, etc. as my cranium can hold.

Nevertheless, I have been enjoying the hard water season. If you don't own a flasher and ice fish, you owe it to yourself to buy one. I'm a student and don't make much money, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to purchase a Vexilar FL-8. My stomach (and girlfriend's) tells me it was a wise decision.